2022-23 Team Developments: News / Trades / Free Agents / Rumors

not ennis?

that's disappointing

 

I wanted Ennis too… but really that was solely off of just seeing the 43% from 3P line he put up. I can’t recall ever actually seeing him play and noticing him. I doubt many Laker fans have. And those shooting numbers seemed to be a bit of an anomaly, and was on low volume.

The fact that we gave him a workout and a few days later decided to sign Reaves instead means that Ennis must have underwhelmed. There must be a reason he still hasn’t been signed. I’ll trust the FO on picking Reaves over Ennis.

 

My interest in Ennis was more so that he was a big wing to throw in defensively and he shot well enough to get on the court. I think Wes is a better defender, but it was clear we weren't going to bring him back or we would've done so much earlier.

Reaves looked good on D in the summer league, but I can't see him getting 1 single minute over a vet this season.

On any other roster the 14th man is irrelevant, but with our age I think there's an opportunity there because of resting and minute management.

End of the day, this will not make or break our championship pursuit but it is the first roster decision this off season that I'm completely against. To reiterate my initial point, nothing against AR. I think he's a NBA player, just not this season AND we already had him on a 2 way deal.

 

Maybe they felt another team might come after Reaves for the end of their roster?

 

Strange even current scout reports say James is a well-rounded wing and considering our need at the 3, this is odd. We have no real 3 as Ariza is more of a 4 and Lebron is supposed to be sliding over to the 4 and he won't guard the toughest 3s anyway during the regular season. So we have no true "3"

Plus the fact that the NBA reimburse us 1 million on each vet min contract makes the cost negligible. It's not 2.6 mil it's 1.6 mil after the NBA reimbursement so even with the lux tax hit it's like 4-5 mil total

The FO must be hot on Reaves

 

Didn’t see this coming at all. Maybe our FO and Vogel feel confident that THT can fill that wing defender role too.

 

My takeaway is we're going to run a lot of 3 guard sets and that Baze and THT will get a lot of PT at SF in order to find minutes for our guards. Bron isn't going to play 82, neither is Ariza, so that could be a small issue.

Rob and Vogel are really high on THT and pushing the chips on him. He has to length to play SF, but if he's not up to snuff defensively, could be a problem. He probably improved his shot during the offseason, he's been putting in a lot of work. But his defensive mistakes are nearly impossible to work on in 1 on 0 drills. He can watch tape to see what he did wrong, but his leap there will come from reps in camp, practice, preseason, and the regular season. I don't think there's enough time before the season and don't think he'll have enough rope in-season given the stakes. His reads, reactions, and floor awareness aren't there yet.

I guess worst comes to worse and this is really doing us in, we can address it later in the season with our 15th spot or wait for a possible buyout. I'll have to look through the rosters and see if anyone jumps out at me. They didn't last time, but I wasn't particularly looking at 3 & D SF buyout candidates.

 

I think the team views Bazemore and Ariza as SF’s. Then we have Lebron and THT. Our strength will come from our versatility.

 

And they say James Ennis is still liking Laker related posts to this day!

 

i do, too. ariza's played most of his career as a 2/3 or just a 3. bazemore has maybe played more 2, but plenty of 3. both are big enough to play that spot most of the time. and i agree that if THT is to carve out a role this year, he better play some sf.

i think we're counting on ariza and lebron to play crunch time defense against big wings like the clippers's guys. most nights against most teams you can play a small-ish 3 and not get hurt.

 

Yikes. I definitely didn’t think Ariza would be a starter on this team.

 

Yikes indeed if true …. my Carnac side career dealt serious blow if Dwight not the starter.

Hmmm …. so blitz teams out of the gate and then bring Dwight in early, or not, and slide AD to 4 and pound on them for awhile?

THT being given a shot to start as well …. wow it all sounds pretty exciting.

 

Well to be honest...besides the megastars like Lebron, KD, Giannis and Kawhi...there aren't many scorers in the NBA at the small forward spot. Most of the top scoring threats are guards or 4/5 guys. I think we will be fine defensively there on most nights with what we have.

 

Here's the quote

 

man i hope AD has altered his training regimen. i know our best lineups are with him at the 5, but you don't necessarily have to start your best lineup. just finish with it.

edit: btw, totally called ellington starting at sg. did not call ariza starting at sf, though.

 

KD and harden better get kyrie in check, or else he's going to jeopardize their entire season with his BS